Lomita proposes spending $80,000 to treat bad-tasting water

Lomita proposes spending $80,000 on blending and testing smelly and foul-tasting water from its multimillion dollar well and treatment in yet another attempt to make it palatable.

None of the water will be distributed to customers.

The City Council is set to discuss the issue at its 7 p.m. meeting Monday at City Hall, 24300 Narbonne Ave.

The city has spent months in a so far futile effort to remedy the water quality issues since the well was completed about two years ago.

Public Works Director Vince Damasse said in a staff report that an independent consulting firm will conduct a Flavor Profile Analysis of well water blended with imported water.

Work will take up to three months to complete.

The report did not say why officials believe blending water would make it drinkable now when past efforts have failed.

But former Mayor Dave Albert, a frequent critic of the city, said he believes yet yet more money is being thrown down the drain.

"Here we are, back to the bad idea of blending perfectly good water from Metropolitan Water with horrible, sub-standard, foul-tasting, bad-smelling, super-hard water from Well No. 5," he said. "When is the city going to admit that they built the wrong purification system for that well?